And I said to myself, yeah, that's what I'm talking about. And I looked for DJ sets from Berghain and getting all into it, thinking, hey I can do that with my gear, it'll be awesome. And, yeah, given the proper amount of prep I think I can pull something decent together.
And as I listened to Adam Beyer's set (love his Drumcode podcast) more attentively it just sounded more and more like the same formulaic stuff. Good stuff, but still quite decidedly following a cookie cutter pattern. X0X ish drum, 4x4, a recognizable bass element, and something unique sounding (if you're lucky). And, while I like it, and infinitely prefer it over the sort of EDM shit featured in the video, it still has the tendency to sound rather interchangeable. There are the few standout tracks (I think all the tracks in the video illustrating proper Techno are pretty stand out tracks), but there's a lot of Metamucil style fillers in many sets. Few DJs avoid it. DJ Hell, Sven Väth, they still surprise. It's at a point where a set from 5 years ago can be hard to tell apart from one recorded last week.

Is the "proper Techno" idea really a fools errand and is it just that some of us simply like this style of cookie cutter pattern more than whatever the fuck DJ Pauly spins?

My golly gee, what an interesting topic. Since I've been forced to read tons of Adorno lately, here's what he would say about it: "All kinds of popular, or "light" music are ultimately resurgigating same old formulas and are therefore not worthwhile as academic endeavours. They are commodities, which solely exist to fill a function, or satisfy one of the "drives" - usually that of the need of belonging to a community, the sex drive, the drive to become intoxicated, or the competition drive. "light" music has been fractured to about a dozen subgenres, different only in ways that remain largely irrelevant to the musical structure and the position of music as art, mostly in order to satisfy the need of exclusivity: The illusion that you belong to an exclusive insider group that likes that kind of music. We know that this is an illusion, since no true sense of community may exist in the monopoly-capitalistic society. The actual musical features are thus irrelevant. Further, this music is so subjugated to the desires of the bourgeois that it mirrors them in every point, it has to in order to get produced and consumed - and to fulfill the function as drive satisfaction as it has set out to be. Therefore we can conclude that this music is not really dialectic, or in a position to be dialectic, and since it therefore is inadequate at exemplifying the class struggle, it is automatically a total piece of trash garbage dumb, and people who make it are literally anal-sadistic assmongrels, whoring themselves out on the streets."

TL;DR: If people still like it, it's working. Who cares if its "dumb" or "simple".

I think I've been thinking about similar ideas lately as well, although not purely regarding techno.
But the same could be said about pearl jam sounding like pearl jam, and then all the crappy post grunge rock bands filling the airwaves of the likes of Sirius octane. Or all the suicide commandos and other agrotech sound alikes.
I think if you have a certain artistic vision and are happy with that it might be sufficient.

As far as popular music being garbage because it won't overthrow the empire, well I don't really know where to go with that one. I guess art should be equally reflection of and escapism from the dreariness of day to day experience so it can't only be expected to be revolutionary or anything.
And if you are a revolutionary long enough you become the new order or whatever!

As far as popular music being garbage because it won't overthrow the empire, well I don't really know where to go with that one.

You drink another bottle of wine and keep reading Adorno, because the man is bloody hilarious in his bashing. You may think I went over the top with anal-sadistic? That's straight out of one of his papers! Eventually, you'll be so drunk that what he wrote begins to make sense. :problemofficer:

I remember back in the 90s most people felt that the majority of electronic dance / techno music was terrible, and it is. There were good artists like the Prodigy or Crystal Method but there were so many DJ Jerkoff and DJ Winecooler fuckers that for the most part no one really cared about except other DJ's who made money playing that in clubs where people were too wasted/distracted to notice that the music was extremely repetitive.

And I said to myself, yeah, that's what I'm talking about. And I looked for DJ sets from Berghain and getting all into it, thinking, hey I can do that with my gear, it'll be awesome. And, yeah, given the proper amount of prep I think I can pull something decent together.
And as I listened to Adam Beyer's set (love his Drumcode podcast) more attentively it just sounded more and more like the same formulaic stuff. Good stuff, but still quite decidedly following a cookie cutter pattern. X0X ish drum, 4x4, a recognizable bass element, and something unique sounding (if you're lucky). And, while I like it, and infinitely prefer it over the sort of EDM shit featured in the video, it still has the tendency to sound rather interchangeable. There are the few standout tracks (I think all the tracks in the video illustrating proper Techno are pretty stand out tracks), but there's a lot of Metamucil style fillers in many sets. Few DJs avoid it. DJ Hell, Sven Väth, they still surprise. It's at a point where a set from 5 years ago can be hard to tell apart from one recorded last week.

Is the "proper Techno" idea really a fools errand and is it just that some of us simply like this style of cookie cutter pattern more than whatever the fuck DJ Pauly spins?

Well, I'll admit, I learned something useful and I actually quite like it.

4x4 Music composed through repetition, but with subtlety that makes you feel evolution, vs "LOOK AT ME!".

I remember once I got offended people would sort of call my og stuff techno (it was e-rock, but rockers don't get it), but one thing has become obvious. ....the more complex you try to get, the easier it gets to generate bullshit.

I think this guy trying to clear up what isn't techno Is helpful to those who will listen.